Shenandoah

Death of a Son
He didn't even have a name, Shenandoah thinks as the pack lays her smallest son under Mother Tree and mourns the loss. His cold, still body fits neatly into the grave.
"I don't know what happened," she repeats for the countless time to Sabre. "I don't know how I didn't notice..." She sobs.
"He was so small," he tells her. "Nobody could have seen --" But Shen cuts off her Alpha.
"But I should have! I'm the herbalist! I'm his mother!" She cries. "How did I not notice an infected umbilical cord, Sabre? I could have saved him. I should have.." The heart broken mother's body is wracked by sobs.
"I'm sorry, Shenandoah. I'm so, so sorry."
The females gather around their pack mate and nuzzle into her, while the males bury the young pup.
Sabre's eyes fill with tears at the loss of another pup.
The adults are gathered around, mourning and comforting, when Lulalune's panicked cry echoes through the forest.
"Not again," Sabre whispers to himself. They'd sent the pups away with Lulalune. If she was howling for help, something was terribly wrong.

Death Strikes Again
Shenandoah mentally checked out for a while. She fed her pups, loved and licked them, fulfilled her duties as herbalist, but Sabre could see the light fading from her eyes at the loss of their son.
As the pups were weaned and became less dependent, she started spending more and more time out foraging, though she rarely brought back anything. Their three remaining pups grew quickly, but even their young minds could tell something was wrong with their mother. They were often left with a pupsitter and could go days without seeing their mother.
The pack saw the brown coated female wasn't just grieving. Over the next few weeks, she lost enough weight that the pack feared they would lose their herbalist as well. She would eat only when forced to by the Alpha. She didn't laugh, or involve herself with the pack.
She went out foraging, too close to the territory lines of a neighboring pack, but never crossing. Unbeknownst to her, one of her daughters, optimistic about following in mommy's footsteps, trotted along near silently behind her.
But the pup didn't know about territory lines or the evils of other packs.
Shenandoah heard the other pack nearby and glanced up the Ridge to see a group of pups playing, but she kept walking, never noticing her own pup wandering up the Ridge to join in the fun.
But their pupsitter must not have taken too kindly to strangers pups mingling with their own.
Shenandoah heard a fearful, pained pup scream echo down into the valley, only to be cutoff mid-screech. Her first instinct was to run toward it, but it had come from the other packs direction, and she had no say in how they disciplined their pups. Or worse. It was, unfortunately, not uncommon for Alphas to dispose of pups they didn't find potential in.
She eventually made her way back to her own pack only to find them in a frenzy. She figured it was in preparation of the pups naming day tomorrow, but the stench of fear clung to the air.
Sabre caught sight of her and immediately ran over.
"Our pup, the little girl with dark cream fur and a red mask, have you seen her?" Sabre asked with panic in his voice.
"No. I've been at the edge of the territory, near the Ridge," she said as her heartbeat started racing.
"You went near the Ridge alone?!" Sabre seethed. He knew the atrocities the mountain pack committed without second thought. Was Shenandoah actively trying to get killed?
"I never crossed the border," she said plainly.
"Mama," a small voice said. The parents looked down at their birch colored pup. "Sissy told me not to tell, but she wanted to come with you when you left this morning. I didn't want to keep a secret. It felt bad."
The parents' hearts dropped into their stomachs. Sabre steeled his heart still, then said to his young pup, "Thank you, dear one. Next time someone tells you to keep a secret, you come tell Papa, ok? I'll tell you if it's a good secret or a bad secret." He licked the pup behind the ears then sent her back to Lena.
"She must've followed me," Shenandoah said, panic rising in her voice. "Sabre, if she followed me... I was so close to another pack's territory." She then remembered the screaming.
"OH, Goddess!" She cried before turning on her heel and racing back the way she'd come.
Sabre, the scouts, and several pack members ran after her. They ran that fast for miles, their muscles aching, their lungs burning with each breath.
They reached the Ridge and immediately started searching.
"I've got her scent!" Aiyomi yelled as her keen nose led her up the Ridge into enemy territory.
"Aiyo!" Sabre called before he and Shenandoah raced after her. "Stay on our side!" Sabre commanded the rest of the pack as they tried to come with them. The last thing we need is the Mountain Pack thinking we're invading.
They smelled the blood, now hours old, before they saw the ravaged body of the tiny, lifeless pup.
Shenandoah's scream alerted the nearby pack whose land they were on, and that pack quickly surrounded the small group.
Aiyomi and Sabre formed a half circle around the sobbing mother and lifeless pup as the Alpha from next door descended upon Sabre, snarling in fury.
"How dare you try to invade my territory," the black eyed Alpha female accused. Her pelt, mostly a mixture of black and white, held a scattering of dark red fur mixed throughout.
"We do not come to invade, only to retrieve the dead," Sabre tried to placate, though Shenandoah's cries broke his soul and made him want to rip the malicious Alpha apart.
"You leave the dead where they lay, or does your pack ignore the old ways?" asked an orange colored male, presumably the Alpha's mate judging by his position. Sabre didn't like the conniving way the male referred to his pack.
"We've never had qualms with the Mountain Pack. All we want is to gather the pup and return to our own lands," Sabre continued.
"Shut that up or I'll do it for her," the Alpha seethed.
"You just murdered her pup. The least you could do is have a little mercy and let mother bring daughter home," Aiyomi seethed.
"Mercy?" She asked, venom leaking into her tone. "Mercy would be sending mother to daughter. Though at least one of you has enough backbone to stand on your feet instead of roll over like a weakling. Take the carcass and get off my land. I will not be so forgiving of another trespass."
"Pick her up, Aiyo," Sabre commanded, refusing to turn his back on the opposition as his mate carefully carried his daughter. His own pack paced back and forth along the border, anxiously awaiting orders. As Shenandoah and Aiyomi crossed the territory line.
"I will honor tradition and escort you back to your own lands, guaranteed from harm," the other Alpha said, loud enough for all to hear.
"I will honor tradition and walk back to my own lands with you, guaranteed from harm," Sabre vowed in return.
Sabre let her come up beside him before turning his back on her pack, though the feeling of unease never left. This was often a time for pack Alphas to speak in confidence to one another, and tradition prevailed once again as the she-Alpha began speaking.
"You should keep a closer eye on your pack, Sabre. You never know what could happen, or who's watching," the Alpha said, the threat openly on display. "The bond between father and daughter is special, after all."
Sabre felt the underlying implications. "There is nothing I wouldn't do for my pack, Sabora. Especially my pups," he stated calmly as they walked slowly back.
"So it's been said. How's your simple daughter, the one who so resembles her mother?" Sabre's blood ran cold.
"Last I heard she'd had a litter of her own. Strange," her voice almost whimsical, "she's not mated and the only Alpha males available to breed would never have bred her."
"Speak plain, Sabora," Sabre demanded.
"I mean, Sabre," she whispered before stopping at the border. Sabre crossed over and stilled his pack with a glance. Sabora grinned maliciously before leaning in close so that only he could hear. "The sins of the father fall onto the son, and the daughter, too, it seems. You should keep a closer eye on the tree line, Little Brother."
Sabre stood taller, a growl threatening to rip from his throat. "Noted, Sister. I thank you for seeing me safely across the border. We will return to our den now."
Sabora chuckled as the pack turned away.